Virginia politics and more

Tag Archives: homeschooling

I received word that one of my homeschooling bills, House Bill 497, will be coming before the House Committee on Education Subcommittee #3 early Monday morning (January 22nd). House Bill 497 would require school districts that offer “dual enrollment” to public school students to also offer these classes to local homeschoolers without having to pay tuition or fees.

I invite you and your family to come testify if you are able. The committee begins at 7:15am and will be meeting in the House Committee Room in the Pocahontas Building. You can find information about directions and parking here.

Many students started their first day of school this week while others began classes in August. It was also the first day of school for many home school students … and that’s where my mind wandered this week as I remembered sixteen years of “first day of school” classes with my children. We had no bus to catch, no lunch to pack, no specially-requested school supplies to buy.

Teaching with the Calvert curriculum in grades K-8, all supplies were included so no trips to the store were necessary for particular items. Calvert has it down to a science because they supply curricula for families around the world … students living on sailboats with their parents, missionaries in remote areas of the globe, and even those of us who were simply teaching our children here in the United States.

For a child, there’s something special about a new pad of writing paper, box of crayons, drawing paper, freshly sharpened pencils, books, work books, and even a new ruler. I would add extras for my classroom … glue sticks, glitter, craft supplies, additional reading books, and personalized items for each of my children to make it a special, never-to-be-forgotten day to kick off a special, never-to-be-forgotten year.

I also decorated the school room and made it a new, exciting place for the school year … new posters, maps, visuals … and items that were added throughout the year with each season. For fall I would tape a three-foot tall tree on the wall and the kids would cut out and color leaves to add to it as I read story books out loud. Thanksgiving would have hand-crafted turkeys followed by Christmas, winter, Valentine’s Day, and other special times of the year.

Six things remained the same year after year. Our classroom always had a Bible, the American flag, and posters on the wall with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Ten Commandments. Maps of the United States and Virginia were part of our geography.

When my son was in the early elementary years and my daughter was a pre-schooler, she had her own “work station” complete with drawing paper, crayons, cut-out alphabet letters, Play-Doh, coloring books, manipulatives, and toys. It made her feel included in the school day.

Mid- to late-August was spent each year working on lesson plans. While the kids swam in the small pool in our back yard, I would sit at the picnic table under a nearby tree and set up our schedule for the year. Calvert provided a laid-out lesson plan but I always deviated from it, adding and rearranging and working in extra activities to fit our family. That was the beauty of home education.

For the first day of school, I would wait until the kids went to bed the night before and then set up the school room for our first day. It added to the surprise and allure of a new year and, the next morning, they would pop out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then we’d head for the school room. It was almost like Christmas with big eyes and oohs and ahhs as they admired the new school accessories, picking up and examining a tablet or book or glitter.

And so our school year began. Since it was September and the days were beautiful leading to autumn, we would often move outdoors onto a blanket in the shade to read out loud, or hike down to the farm pond to look for aquatic life — guppies, frogs, turtles, fish — that we read about in the science book. Searching for specific tree leaves was a favorite as they gathered a variety of species in our own nature scavenger hunt.

Some days we would pack a lunch and the school books and head for the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway where we would do school activities around a picnic table or search for creek critters for biology. After moving to Virginia, we would do the same and head for the Skyline Drive, eating lunch at a picnic area and then becoming Junior Park Rangers for the afternoon, looking for animal tracks and wildflowers and insects.

But the first day of school would kick it off each year, preparing us for those adventures in teaching, in learning, in exploring and expanding our horizons. I learned as much as the kids, and I believe we are all better for it. It was the right choice for my family, and I was willing and, thankfully able, with the backing of a supportive husband, to give 24/7 to my children who are now 20-something adults.

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Lynn Mitchell educated her children at home for 16 years and was part of leadership in North Carolina’s Iredell County Home Educators (ICHE) and Virginia’s Parent Educators of Augusta County Homes (PEACH). Her son graduated from Harrisonburg’s James Madison University (JMU) in 2007 with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Creative Writing. Her daughter graduated from Staunton’s Mary Baldwin University in 2012 with a BS in Sustainable Business and Marketing. Lynn and her husband live in Augusta County located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Other titles in the “Back in the homeschool classroom” series by Lynn R. Mitchell:

“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
– Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800

During the years I served as newsletter editor for Parent Educators of Augusta County Homes, I would often use quotes, and one of my favorite was the one above by Virginia Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.

While these days it means more for political reasons, during my days in homeschool leadership it pertained more to our religious differences. Among those who had made the decision to educate their children at home were a wide range of religious beliefs. If we concentrated on those, we would devolve into disagreements about how the group should run and narrow our focus from the group’s purpose.

My kids and I spent much more than 15 minutes a day reading out loud over the 16 years that I had the wonderful opportunity to educate them at home. We read countless books out loud at home by the wood stove in winter and outdoors in the yard during the summer, while picnicking and camping along the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway, at the Outer Banks, traveling across the country to Colorado and Wyoming — anywhere and everywhere, and the memories are priceless. Read, learn, bond.

—–Lynn Mitchell educated her children at home for 16 years and was part of leadership in North Carolina’s Iredell County Home Educators (ICHE) and Virginia’s Parent Educators of Augusta County Homes (PEACH). Her son graduated from Harrisonburg’s James Madison University (JMU) in 2007 with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Creative Writing. Her daughter graduated from Staunton’s Mary Baldwin College in 2012 with a BS in Sustainable Business and a minor in Marketing. Lynn and her husband live in Augusta County located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The story of how she began her homeschool journey can be found here (see Back in the homeschool classroom: Blazing new trails).

Other titles in the “Back in the homeschool classroom” series by Lynn R. Mitchell:

For supporters of the homeschool sports access bill also known as the Tebow Bill, the news out of Richmond on Wednesday was not good. After Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the bill, it was not able to gain the support needed to overcome the veto (see House sustains McAuliffe veto of Tebow Bill).

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote this morning, my mind drifted back to the sixteen years we educated our children at home. Talk about going where there is no path and leaving a trail!

A tip of my hat to those homeschool pioneers who were there years before I joined up in 1990. I read books about their battles with school and state officials in various locations across the country, and was grateful for the tenaciousness and willingness of those faithful parents to basically lay it all on the line, plowing that path for those of us who followed. In Virginia, Delegate Rob Bell’s parents were pioneers in that movement, and local homeschool friends whose kids are now grown had been involved in the South Carolina movement.

I loved this article, “50 reasons homeschooled kids love being homeschooled,” by Kris Bales who wrote, “I asked the folks on my Facebook page to ask their kids why they liked being homeschooled and let me know what they said. I asked mine, too, and compiled the answers for you. Some answers were heard a lot. Some were pretty unique. Some got my added commentary, and some stand alone. So, if you’ve ever wondered why homeschooled kids like being homeschooled, here are the results, in no particular order after the first two, of my really unscientific poll.”

Reading the list brought back lots of memories of the 16 years I spent schooling with my children so, after reading the list and nodding and smiling about various ones, I emailed both my kids with the link. I pointed out that my daughter would very much identify with #15: “Being able to do school with pets. Have you seen the recent studies that show that reading to dogs helps improve the proficiency of struggling readers?” Her kitty, Palmer, was often curled up beside her as she studied or read.

Over my desk hangs a framed document signed by Governor Bob McDonnell when I was appointed in 2010 to the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia’s Board of Trustees. That was Bob McDonnell fitting a hand into a glove, and it had nothing to do with money or power. I didn’t ask to be appointed; in fact, I had never asked for any appointments in all my years of volunteering for the Republican Party.

Hampton City homeschool parents are facing issues with the local public school system that have not yet been resolved and is being looked into by Home Educators Association of Virginia, the statewide homeschool organization. Yvonne Bunn, HEAV’s Director of Legislative Affairs, sent an update that is important for homeschool parents in that area so I’m reposting it here: